Envelop.



PATENTEDI'JHAN. 13, 19.03,

B.- H. GHRISTEN SEN.

ENVELOP.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 1, 1901.

N0 MODEL.

THE uonllls PETi RS w. PNUTOLHNQ. WASHINGTON, m c.

UNITED, STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EMILIE H. CHRISTENSEN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ENVELOP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 718,426, dated January 13, 1903.

Application filed July 1,1901. Serial No. 66,684. (No model.)

T0 on whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EMILIE .H. CHRISTEN- SEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Envelops, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to envelops, and its object is to provide an envelop that cannot be opened after it has been once sealed without giving evidence of having been tampered with.

A further object is to provide an envelop of this description that will be simple in construction and can be economically manufactured, and, further, will be capable of convenient and simple manipulation.

Envelops as ordinarily made when sealed. by gumming the flap may readily be opened by inserting a lead-pencil, penholder, or other rounded object in the'corner beneath the flap and then rolling the pencil so as to overcome the adhesion of the mucilage, and then 'the flap regummed and closed. When tampered within this manner, the envelop rarely shows that it has been so tampered with. I propose to overcome this by providing atongue which will prevent the flap from being opened except by tearing the tongue or flap and which cannot itself be unfastened in the manner above described.

The invention will be more particularly described with reference'to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a rear view of the envelop embodying my invention, showing the flap of the envelop opened; and Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the flap closed.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the envelop 1, which may be of anysuitable size, shape or material, is shown as having the slots 2 and 3 in the back immediately beneath the flap. A tongue 4 is thus formed. In order to simplify the manufacture of the envelop, the requisite number of slots to form the tongue may be cut in the blank at the time of its manufacture or before it is folded and sealed to form the envelop. The tongue may, however, be formed upon or attached to the envelop in any other suitable manner. The gum 5 is applied to the envelop either upon the body portion, as shown in, the drawings, or upon the flap, in the usual and ordinary manner. The tongue 4, however, should in'all cases be gummed. A slot 6 is formed in the flap of the envelop, and when the flap is folded down in the ordinary manner the tongue is passed through this slot and then bent over and gummed down upon the envelop, as shown in Fig. 2.

The envelop is sealed by being gummed in the usual manner and also by the gumming of the tongue-piece, as above described. When the envelop is sealed in this manner, it cannot be opened without tearing or unfasteningthe tongue-piece, and as the tongue-piece aifords no opening in which any object could be inserted to overcome the adhesion of the mucilage the envelop will show any attempt at tampering with its contents.

The envelop above described, aside from its features of giving notice of tampering with the contents, possesses other features of advantage, such as being in the nature of a novelty by reason of its appearance of having a lock to fasten the flap to the envelop.

Having thus described my invention, I declare that what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In an envelop, the combination of a flap having a slot therein parallel to its edge, two side flaps folded one upon the other and fas toned together by means of an adhesive substance, one of said flaps being uncut, and the EMILIE H. CHRISTENSEN.

Witnesses:

O. V. EDWARDS, RALPH JONAS. 

